The only company besides Apple that ever made a decent computer you could buy in a retail store. Now relegated to online sales due to the influx of cheaply made, cheaply priced machines in the retail sector.

I tried to buy an IBM at Best Buy, but the guy sold me an eMachines instead.

The creators of the BIOS system most computers are based around. Unfortunately arrogant enough to publish their BIOS code in a context akin to saying, "Look, this is how it's done. If you do it in a similar way we'll know where you got it from."

Phoenix Technologies where the first to successfully cheat the challenge; one team of scientists simply worked directly on the IBM BIOS and made an exhaustive table of commands and responses, another team who had no knowledge of IBMs existing code were given the table to write a new BIOS.

This is how IBM lost their monopoly on PC design, how the first buyers of Phoenix BIOS, Compaq placed themselves on the market, and generally a nice example of David and Goliath.

The IBM BIOS standard becoming ripped off has both advanced compatibility and held back the market at once, but at least it's basically open-source.

International Business Machines
I've Been Misled
Idiots Become Managers
I've Been Misinformed
I'm Being Mocked

"I've switched jobs 5 times since I started working for IBM, and now I have experience in food service, retail, water treatment and banking. Sadly, I haven't touched a PC in so long, I forgot what they look like."